Women (Burundi)

This article by Alert's Director of Programmes Phil Vernon is a reply to Oliver Richmond’s ‘Liberal Peace Transitions' for Open Democracy.

International Alert supports a series of small post-conflict initiatives in Burundi. And some of the values that motivate these are also dear to the liberal hearts of the international community.

Since May 2010, Burundi has embarked in a marathon electoral season, with five successive elections (at district, presidential, legislative, and village level) over a period of five months.

In the district elections on May 24th, the ruling party won a landslide victory. Despite some minor irregularities, international and national election observers stated the elections were largely fair, while opposition parties claimed they were fraudulent and withdrew from the election process.

Set up during 2006 with peacebuilding as its sole objective, the UN Peacebuilding Commission has the potential to use its intergovernmental voice to focus attention on the factors that could drive a renewal of conflict. In this light, Alert submitted recommendations in late 2006 on how the PBC could most effectively orientate its short and long-term support to the process of improving security and sustaining peace, for men and women, in Burundi. More widely, this publication also looks at the main challenges for the PBC and how it should focus its activities.

Recommendations

This is the report of a consultation workshop jointly organised by International Alert and the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) in partnership with the Women and Gender Studies Department at Makerere University. The workshop is part of a regional research project aimed at assessing the impact of women’s political participation in countries emerging from conflict in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Full report

Women peacebuilders in various conflict-affected countries face very similar challenges as they attempt to integrate women’s interests in peacebuilding policy processes and civil society actors from different countries can potentially learn a lot from exchanging experiences with each other. This report outlines the findings and recommendations of a workshop with representatives from Burundian and Sierra Leonean civil society organisations working in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment organised by International Alert on 25th to 29th February 2008.

Full report